The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
The Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is one of the most crucial components on a computer motherboard. The BIOS software is preloaded into a memory (the BIOS memory) of the BIOS, and typically is the first code run by a computer when powered on. When the computer starts up, the first job for the BIOS is the power-on self-test, which initializes and identifies the system devices such as the CPU, RAM, video display card, keyboard and mouse, hard disk drive, optical disc drive and other hardware. The BIOS then locates a boot loader software held on a peripheral device (designated as a “boot device”), such as a hard disk or a CD/DVD, and loads and executes that software, giving it control of the operating system (OS). This process is known as booting, or booting up, which is short for bootstrapping.
Generally, a service processor (SP) or a baseboard management controller (BMC) refers to a specialized microcontroller that manages the interface between system management software and platform hardware. The BMC can be embedded on the motherboard of a computer, generally a server. For example, different types of sensors can be built into the computer system, and the BMC reads these sensors to obtain parameters such as temperature, cooling fan speeds, power status, operating system (OS) status, etc. The BMC monitors the sensors and can send alerts to a system administrator via the network if any of the parameters do not stay within preset limits, indicating a potential failure of the system. The administrator can also remotely communicate with the BMC to take some corrective action such as resetting or power cycling the system to get a hung OS running again.
In a host computer provided with a SP, the SP can be connected with the host computer via system interfaces, such as a standardized interface under an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) standard, a universal serial bus (USB) interface or any other interfaces. The BIOS of the host computer, when needed, can initiate a communication with the SP through the interfaces using the IPMI original equipment manufacturer (OEM) commands. In other words, the BIOS can initiate data transactions to transfer data to the SP or to request data from the SP. However, the SP has to wait for the BIOS to initiate such data transactions to transfer data to the BIOS or to receive data from the BIOS. There is a need for the SP to initiate data transactions with the BIOS of the host computer.
Therefore, an unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.